Thursday, February 07, 2008

Trumah: acheiving wisdom

Parshas Trumah

In 25:32 it says, "מקשה תיעשה המנורה" - the Menorah should be made of a solid piece.

Rashi explains that you should not make it in pieces that you then attach together, but from one solid piece.

The menorah is symbolic of wisdom - Torah knowledge. חכמה, wisdom, cannot come from partial information, knowledge in piecemeal fashion, putting things together. If you have bits and pieces of information, you might know some things, but that does not make you into a חכם.


You have to work hard and get the whole picture. learn it all, get the whole Torah, get the whole of whatever it is you are studying, understand it completely, the whole concept.

That is the way to acheive wisdom, just as the Menorah had to be of one piece.

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